Exercise: Contrast and shadow fill.

Needed for this exercise are: a large white card and some tin foil to be used as reflectors.

" Set up a simple still life. Shoot from the same level as the subject with the camera on a tripod. Fix the light 2-3ft to one side at right angles to the cameras view. Take a number of photographs with and without a diffuser, at different distances, with white card and aluminium foil in different ways. Compare the results and then arrange them in order of contrast".

For this exercise I chose a selection of my make up to make a still life. I was pretty limited as to where I could shoot as the only place that has no light at all is my landing. I have tried to position it so that there was room at either side of the set for access. The background is actually my bedroom door as this was the only area I could shoot. The photos are all shot s 1/1.6 (this was actually determined by the camera) f5 ISO 400 40mm.

1. No diffuser.

2.With diffuser (greaseproof paper).



3. White card 1 metre away.



4. White card 0.5 metre away.

5. Aluminium foil reflector (dull side).

6. Aluminium foil reflector (shiny side).

7. Crumpled foil.

I then decided to experiment a little as I ordered a diffuser for the camera. Still keeping the arrangement the same I then used the built in flash to create the following effects. They were all shot 1/60 f5 ISO 400 40mm.

With built in flash.

Built in flash with diffuser.

Built in flash with yellow diffuser.

Built in flash with blue diffuser.

Conclusion.

The version that displays the highest contrast is the un diffused lamp example with no reflector. There is an obvious difference between this and the diffused example that did not have a reflected, with the shadows being much softer.

There was more of a difference between the white card and foil reflectors than I was expecting. Predictably, moving the reflectors closer to the still life or further away had a noticeable effect.

It was also interesting to see the effects created by the built in flash with variety of diffusers. Adding a diffuser really did have a big effect on the scene. I rather like the image created with the blue diffuser and had never thought of using coloured diffusers before.